Investigating the information technology courses for pre-service and in-service english teachers in hong kong

This paper focuses on the views of twenty-six pre-service and eight in-service English teachers in Hong Kong concerning the information technology courses in their teacher education programmes. The findings of the study show that while both software applications and technological integration in teaching are highlighted in the course outline, the instructor focused more on the application aspect, with the technology integration being less emphasised. Another important finding is that PowerPoint was still the most commonly used application in teaching. Likewise, usually the involved pre-service and in-service teachers just simply used different computer applications as alternatives to traditional teaching resources. This may reflect the fact that the information technology courses are not adequate to prepare teachers to teach with it.Este artículo se centra en las opiniones que tienen veintiséis profesores practicantes y ocho profesores de inglés en Hong Kong sobre los cursos de información de tecnología en sus programas de licenciatura. Los resultados muestran que mientras las aplicaciones de  software y la integración de tecnología se destacan en el esquema del curso, el instructor se enfoca más en los aspectos de aplicación. A su vez, la integración de tecnología no tuvo tanto énfasis. Otro hallazgo importante es que Power Point siguió siendo la aplicación más empleada en la enseñanza. Asimismo, los docentes y profesores practicantes involucrados generalmente solo usan diferentes aplicaciones de computadores como alternativas a los recursos de enseñanza tradicional. Esto puede reflejar el hecho de que los cursos de información de tecnología no son adecuados para preparar a los profesores para hacer uso de esta en su labor educativa

Gender representation in Hong Kong primary English language textbooks:a study of two widely-used textbook series

Gender equality has long been an issue for gender and language research from as early as the 1970s to the contemporary era in the 2010s, and gender stereotyping in textbooks is an issue in many different countries (Davis, 1995; see also Blumberg, 2007, 2008). While secondary English Language textbooks published in Hong Kong have already been investigated by Lee and Collins (2008), primary English Language textbooks have rarely been investigated (but see Au, 1992; Au, 2004). Therefore, the present study investigates gender representation in two widely-used primary English Language textbook series, Step Up and Primary Longman Express, by examining two subgenres that can be widely found in all language textbooks: reading passages and dialogues, and visuals. In other words, textual (lexis and grammar), discourse and visual representations of gender are analysed. A combination of different methods is used in this study. First, to answer the research question of how gender is represented in the reading passages in the Step Up and Primary Longman Express series in terms of lexis and grammar (Research Question A), content, linguistic and discourse analyses are conducted. Then, pragmatics and conversation analysis are used to analyse how the discourse of male and female speakers is represented in the dialogues in the two textbook series (Research Question B). Finally, to analyse the representation of gender in the visuals in the two textbook series (Research Question C), the method of visual analysis is used. To make sure that the quantitative results obtained are significant, the chi-square test is also used and log-likelihood values are calculated. The results of this study are encouraging in that males and females are represented similarly and fairly, and show an improvement over previous textbook studies in gender representation. In textual representation of gender, at the lexical level, though males were represented more often than females in terms of having a higher frequency of occurrence of node words, nomination, and pronouns when counted as ‘tokens’ in the two series, both males and females were portrayed as having jobs outside home and engaging in household chores (even if only playing a supportive role for males). At the formal grammatical level, the ‘generic’ use of masculine pronouns to refer to human beings in general could not be found in the two textbook series either. As regards gender representation in dialogues, the results vary between the two textbook series and across different dialogue subgenres. Male/female invisibility and domination in dialogues do not exist, and there are no instances of gender stereotyping in the analysed dialogues of the two series. Finally, in visual representation of gender, though males were represented more than females in the illustrations in the two textbook series, the phenomenon of gender stereotyping in terms of occupations and activities engaged in the illustrations in the selected books of either textbook series is not prominent

How Innovative is Singapore in High Technology Industry Cluster? An Empirical Study of Annual Reports of High Technology Firms

As a small country lacking of natural resources, Singapore has been developing innovation-based industry, which is highly associated with high technology. High technology sector has become an important pillar of today's Singapore economy. This paper is to evaluate how innovative Singapore is. The evaluation is conducted through empirical study of Singapore technology firms' annual reports, discussion of Singapore national innovation policy and the world recognition of Singapore's economic performance. The companies selected are within the high technology cluster to which the Singapore National Innovation System (NIS) is applied. Many literatures show that innovativeness involves 2 aspects: 1) Hard aspects - research and development (R&D) expenditure, intellectual capital, new product development, and market development; and 2) Soft aspects - senior management attitudes towards innovation" - entrepreneurship, employees' involvement and collaboration. The analytical study of this paper measures the innovating activities of ten Singapore companies in a given year and compares the results with that of ten companies of The United States of America (USA). As USA is ranked as one of the top innovative countries, comparing innovating results with USA will generate a worldwide standing for Singapore. The analytical study is conducted based on Wong (2003) survey that concludes innovation activity is positively related to sales volume, sales growth and internationalization. This paper reveals that despite Singapore still has a long way to go in R&D activities and innovation behavior, it has achieved a remarkable performance in innovation development, and is making progress towards achieving higher innovation capability. The deficiency in innovation behavior is due to its adverse societal attitude to "failure". Suggestions are given to promote innovation behavior in this paper

A comparison of nurses’ and physicians’ perception of cancer treatment burden based on reported adverse events

Background Cancer treatments are associated with a multitude of adverse events (AEs). While both nurses and physicians are involved in patient care delivery and AE assessment, very few studies have examined the differences between nurses’ and physicians’ reporting and perception of AEs. An approach was recently proposed to assess treatment burden based on reported AEs from the physician’s perspective. In this paper, we use this approach to evaluate nurses’ perception of burden, and compare nurses’ and physicians’ assessment of the overall and relative burden of AEs. Methods AE records for 334 cancer patients from a randomized clinical trial conducted by the SWOG Cancer Research Network were evaluated by 14 nurses at Columbia University Medical Center. Two nurses were randomly selected to assign a burden score from 0 to 10 based on their impression of the global burden of the captured AEs. These nurses did not interact directly with the patients. Scores were compared to previously obtained physicians scores using paired T-test and Kappa statistic. Severity scores for individual AEs were obtained using mixed-effects models with nurses assessments, and were qualitatively compared to physicians’. Results Given the same AEs, nurses’ and physicians’ perception of the burden of AEs differed. While nurses generally perceived the overall burden of AEs to be only slightly worse compared to physicians (mean average VAS score of 5.44 versus 5.14), there was poor agreement in the perception of AEs that were in mild to severe range. The percent agreement for a moderate or worse AE was 64% with a Kappa of 0.34. Nurses also assigned higher severity scores to symptomatic AEs compared to physicians (p < 0.05), such as gastrointestinal (4.77 versus 4.14), hemorrhage (5.07 versus 4.14), and pain (5.17 versus 4.14). Conclusions These differences in the perception of burden of AEs can lead to different treatment decisions and symptom management strategies. Thus, having provider consistency, training, or a collaborative approach in follow-up care between nurses and physicians is important to ensure continuity in care delivery. Moreover, estimating overall burden from both physicians’ and nurses’ perspective, and comparing them may be useful for deciding when collaborations are warranted

Combating social exclusion faced by disabled people in the wage labour market in Hong Kong

This article contributes to the search for suitable approaches to combat social exclusion faced by disabled people in capitalist wage labour markets. Referring to policy and service examples in Hong Kong, it reviews four social exclusion approaches – the Moral Underclass (MUD), Social Integrationist (SID), Redistributive (RED) and Collective Production (COP) approaches. These approaches are explored in relation to three key issues: (1) the diverse preferences of disabled people; (2) the myth of infeasibility regarding unconventional approaches and (3) the defects of the medical model of disability. The article argues that the MUD and SID approaches are more associated with the medical model of disability and emphasise individual changes. The RED and COP approaches contain more features of the social model of disability and are in favour of social and structural changes. The COP approach stresses the diverse preferences of disabled people and supports innovative services to combat social exclusion

Assessment of the revised Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scales among adolescents and adults with severe mental illness

The Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS) comprising 36 items has been widely used across age, gender, psychopathology, language, and culture. Recently several alternative abridged forms have been introduced, namely, the DERS-16 (Bjureberg et al. 2016), the DERS-SF (Kaufman et al. 2016), and the DERS-18 (Victor and Klonsky, 2016), each composed of 16 or 18 items, to provide researchers and clinicians with a shorter measure of emotion dysregulation. However, no study to date has directly compared the psychometrics of these alternative forms. In the present study, using confirmatory factor analysis we first examined the factor structure of the four models of the DERS in two inpatient samples of 636 adolescents in the age-range of 12–17 years (M = 15.33, SD = 1.43), and 1807 adults in the age-range of 18–76 years (M = 34.86, SD = 14.63) with severe mental illness. Next, measurement invariance was tested comparing the two age groups across the four models of DERS. Only the DERS-SF established metric and scalar measurement invariance. Findings suggest that the factor structure of the original and the abridged models of DERS have acceptable fit, however only DERS-SF had equivalence of factor loadings and item intercepts across adolescents and adults

Neighbourhood environment, physical activity, quality of life and depressive symptoms in Hong Kong older adults: a protocol for an observational study

INTRODUCTION: The neighbourhood environment can assist the adoption and maintenance of an active lifestyle and affect the physical and mental well-being of older adults. The psychosocial and behavioural mechanisms through which the environment may affect physical and mental well-being are currently poorly understood. AIM: This observational study aims to examine associations between the physical and social neighbourhood environments, physical activity, quality of life and depressive symptoms in Chinese Hong Kong older adults. METHODS AND ANALYSES: An observational study of the associations of measures of the physical and social neighbourhood environment, and psychosocial factors, with physical activity, quality of life and depressive symptoms in 900 Hong Kong older adults aged 65+ years is being conducted in 2012-2016. The study involves two assessments taken 6 months apart. Neighbourhood walkability and access to destinations are objectively measured using Geographic Information Systems and environmental audits. Demographics, socioeconomic status, walking for different purposes, perceived neighbourhood and home environments, psychosocial factors, health status, social networks, depressive symptoms and quality of life are being assessed using validated interviewer-administered self-report measures and medical records. Physical functionality is being assessed using the Short Physical Performance Battery. Physical activity and sedentary behaviours are also being objectively measured in approximately 45% of participants using accelerometers over a week. Physical activity, sedentary behaviours, quality of life and depressive symptoms are being assessed twice (6 months apart) to examine seasonality effects on behaviours and their associations with quality of life and depressive symptoms. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: The study received ethical approval from the University of Hong Kong Human Research Ethics Committee for Non-Clinical Faculties (EA270211) and the Department of Health (Hong Kong SAR). Data are stored in a password-protected secure database for 10 years, accessible only to the named researchers. Findings will be submitted for publication in peer-reviewed journals

25 years of epidermal stem cell research.

This is a chronicle of concepts in the field of epidermal stem cell biology and a historic look at their development over time. The past 25 years have seen the evolution of epidermal stem cell science, from first fundamental studies to a sophisticated science. The study of epithelial stem cell biology was aided by the ability to visualize the distribution of stem cells and their progeny through lineage analysis studies. The excellent progress we have made in understanding epidermal stem cell biology is discussed in this article. The challenges we still face in understanding epidermal stem cells include defining molecular markers for stem and progenitor sub-populations, determining the locations and contributions of the different stem cell niches, and mapping regulatory pathways of epidermal stem cell proliferation and differentiation. However, our rapidly evolving understanding of epidermal stem cells has many potential uses that promise to translate into improved patient therapy

Protocol for randomized personalized trial for stress management compared to standard of care

Stress is a significant public health burden in the United States, with most Americans reporting unhealthy levels of stress. Stress management techniques include various evidence-based treatments shown to be effective but with heterogeneous treatment responses, indicating a lack of uniform benefits for all individuals. Designed to assess a participant’s response to a specific intervention, personalized (N-of-1) trials provide guidance for which treatment (s) work (s) best for the individual. Prior studies examining the effects of mindfulness meditation, yoga, and walking for stress reduction found all three interventions to be associated with significant reductions in self-reported measures of stress. Delivering these treatments using a personalized trial approach has the potential to assist clinicians in identifying the best stress management techniques for individuals with persistently high stress while fostering treatment decisions that consider their personal condition/barriers. This trial will evaluate a personalized approach compared to standard of care for three interventions (guided mindfulness meditation; guided yoga; and guided brisk walking) to manage perceived stress. Participants will respond to daily surveys and wear a Fitbit device for 18 weeks. After a 2-week baseline period, participants in the personalized trial groups will receive 12 weeks of interventions in randomized order, while participants in the standard-of-care group will have access to all interventions for self-directed stress management. After intervention, all participants will undergo 2 weeks of observation, followed by two additional weeks of the stress management intervention of their choosing while continuing outcome measurement. At study completion, all participants will be sent a satisfaction survey. The primary analysis will compare perceived stress levels between the personalized and standard of care arms. The results of this trial will provide further support for the use of personalized designs for managing stress.Clinical Trial Registration: clinicaltrials.gov, NCT05408832.Protocol version: 9/14/2022, 21-0968-MRB